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tracey_stewart's review against another edition
5.0
Four stars, with extra half star for Piggy's cat doodles. Rounded up to five.
sarahmatthews's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
The Dower House Mystery by Patricia Wentworth
Read as e-book using a mix of Braille and TTS
Dean Street Press
Pub. 1925
___
I’ve been meaning to read Dean Street Press for ages as their books sound so enjoyable, so #DeanStreetDecember was the nudge I needed.
I loved the setup of this one; Amabel Grey takes a peculiar job to earn enough money to send her daughter on a chance of a lifetime trip abroad (to snag a rich husband!), thinking she’s a capable woman who doesn’t believe in ghosts and all will be fine. How hard could it be to be paid by the owner of a house to live there for 6 months to quash the local rumours that it’s haunted, which have made it impossible to rent out?
But of course as soon as she arrives strange and unsettling things start to happen, all of which sound ridiculous when explained out loud; someone laughing, a cat mewing, doors that were bolted at night being wide open in the morning, the feeling that someone is following you up the stairs. And all manner of other creepy little details to add to the tension:
“The house was very still, but twice the stillness was broken by that sound of light footsteps, jenny of course, moving about downstairs. She turned a page and forced her mind to follow the words. They remained words to her, separate words, no connecting thought to string them together. On other nights there had been a hundred sounds; the wind in the chimneys, the pattering of the rain, the unkempt ivy buffeting the windowpane, the faint scuttering of mice. Tonight there were none of these sounds, the house was very still. It was like the hush before a storm.”
The solution was a little absurd and I saw it coming but I didn’t mind as I was enjoying the main characters and the eerie atmosphere of the house so much, I just went with it!
A fortune teller, a past love, a mysterious missing girl and two dogs that run away in terror all make for a thoroughly entertaining read.
tombomp's review against another edition
1.0
The central mystery of this book is almost identical to [b:Footsteps in the Dark|311123|Footsteps in the Dark|Georgette Heyer|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1320460143s/311123.jpg|1055239] which I thought was awful and this is awful too. I'm certain one was copied from the other, although I can't understand why given how flimsy a premise it is. I noticed the similarity pretty early on but continued on in the hope it'd somehow be better, but it wasn't. The one feature of this which is better than the other one is the romance is handled a lot better and felt like the condensed version of a typical genre romance novel (I mean this as a compliment, it wasn't bad)
Apart from the mystery the book suffered from long stretches of not a great deal happening and way too many characters. About 3/4 of the way through the book introduces a random character and her family member as if we should know them and advances the plot through them and then they just disappear again. I'm assuming she's another Wentworth character but it's still a very confusing cameo and feels both like a lazy way to advance the plot and a pointless one (and it's through an absurd coincidence that someone overhears the exact right information aaa). A lot of useless characters are named and barely introduced but used enough to be confusing - eg a police chief who's barely in it anyway and is referred to affectionately, sickeningly as "piggy" [ugh] has a named wife who's mentioned 3 times and does nothing except force you to look back to work out who she is. The names themselves are confusing - there are I think 5 different meaningful women whose name being with A. A couple are due to an identity confusion plot, the rest for no reason. It's surprisingly hard to keep track and only by the very end was I starting to get a handle on which of the characters was which so the reveal of the criminals didn't have much of an impact as I barely recalled them.
As with Footsteps in the Dark, the criminal plot required everything involved to be completely dense - and the behaviour of the heroes wasn't much better, hobbled by a ridiculous in story contract that was the only way the author could think of to avoid it being solved really easily I guess. It's another of those mysteries where the plot was only revealed through the criminals' terrible idea to try and hide what they're doing that just served to draw more attention to them. The whole haunting story was never going to keep people away forever. And there was never any sign what they actually did would be noticed by inhabitants of the house anyway! AAaaaaaa.
Just a big rant about the whole plot and the ending
Terrible mystery that doesn't really play fair although in basics is really easy to guess isn't redeemed by the readable but very cliched romance plot and the unexciting characterisation. Not worth your time at all.
Apart from the mystery the book suffered from long stretches of not a great deal happening and way too many characters. About 3/4 of the way through the book introduces a random character and her family member as if we should know them and advances the plot through them and then they just disappear again. I'm assuming she's another Wentworth character but it's still a very confusing cameo and feels both like a lazy way to advance the plot and a pointless one (and it's through an absurd coincidence that someone overhears the exact right information aaa). A lot of useless characters are named and barely introduced but used enough to be confusing - eg a police chief who's barely in it anyway and is referred to affectionately, sickeningly as "piggy" [ugh] has a named wife who's mentioned 3 times and does nothing except force you to look back to work out who she is. The names themselves are confusing - there are I think 5 different meaningful women whose name being with A. A couple are due to an identity confusion plot, the rest for no reason. It's surprisingly hard to keep track and only by the very end was I starting to get a handle on which of the characters was which so the reveal of the criminals didn't have much of an impact as I barely recalled them.
As with Footsteps in the Dark, the criminal plot required everything involved to be completely dense - and the behaviour of the heroes wasn't much better, hobbled by a ridiculous in story contract that was the only way the author could think of to avoid it being solved really easily I guess. It's another of those mysteries where the plot was only revealed through the criminals' terrible idea to try and hide what they're doing that just served to draw more attention to them. The whole haunting story was never going to keep people away forever. And there was never any sign what they actually did would be noticed by inhabitants of the house anyway! AAaaaaaa.
Just a big rant about the whole plot and the ending
Spoiler
Also of course the resolution involved secret passages which is like. Whatever. It's nonsense but at least you can completely get it. But the secret passage was only important to the criminals to the extent it went to the cellars. They didn't need it to go any further. They could have just bricked up the passage into the rest of the house. People only found it because they *drew attention to it*! And the cellars were bricked up because they were dangerous so the cellars they were using were completely cut off. So nobody would have noticed them. No matter what. The whole exercise was totally pointless. And the head honcho was apparently rich and already rented a big house and so he could have done the money forging in his own house. Or he could at least have rented the house instead of staging a bloody haunting in it. Just such an awful awful plan. And apparently the housemaid knew about these secret passages, presumably had a good idea this was what the "ghost" was using, never told anyone! Could be explained that she was trying to shield her sister but her sister never actually made contact, she just thought she saw her once. And of course the one person who was presented as a suspect before the end was a secret police guy who just happened to act really suspicious because he's terrible at his job. I guessed that ages before. And of course the secret sister just happened to be made up and have excellent scholastic knowledge etc such that nobody could ever vaguely guess it was her, so the reader couldn't either. I guessed one of the unmarried women was the wife of one of the men because they always are but guessed the wrong one. The basic plot I knew from like 10% in when money forgery is mentioned and they're moving into a haunted house but I couldn't finger the criminals until right before the end because there's very little to go on. Just. AghTerrible mystery that doesn't really play fair although in basics is really easy to guess isn't redeemed by the readable but very cliched romance plot and the unexciting characterisation. Not worth your time at all.
dmwhipp's review against another edition
4.0
A good old-fashioned mystery, perfect for escaping the every day. A well written cozy featuring rich atmosphere, a haunted house, and likable characters.
quietjenn's review against another edition
3.0
A good choice for the Halloween season, in that it's a haunted house story that's really a mystery and it's nicely evocative without being very woo-woo scary. It reminded me a lot of Mary Roberts Rinehart and I liked it a lot. Certainly far more than I expected to, as the daughter of our intrepid heroine is seriously THE WORST. But her terrible-osity kickstarts are adventure, so so be it.
cmbohn's review against another edition
3.0
Very slight mystery that wasn't very mysterious. I really prefer her Miss Silver books. This was written in 1925 and I think her later books were much better.
booksuperpower's review
4.0
The Dower House by Patricia Wentworth is a 2016 Open Road Media publication. (Originally published in 1925)
I love Golden Age Mysteries!
This is a stand- alone mystery- not a part of the Miss Silver series- by Wentworth. Amabel Grey’s rather spoiled daughter, Daphne, shovels on the guilt, demanding that Amabel raise the funds for a trip she’s desperate to take. Determined to get the money, Amabel agrees to spend six months at 'Dower House' to help dispel stubborn rumors that the house is haunted. Will she manage to stay for the duration?
I’m sure that over the years I have read a few books by Patricia Wentworth, but it would have been long, long time ago, and I don’t have any memory of them. I’ve been piecing together the ‘Miss Silver’ mysteries for a while, hoping to read through the series from start to finish. This book, however, is not a part of that series. Truth be told, I stumbled across it while browsing through the Kindle Unlimited books at Amazon.
This was such a fun mystery! Amabel is reunited with the real love of her life after many years, but her life could be in real danger- but from whom? And Why?
There are plenty of atmospheric chills and thrills, as well as a sweet love story, and lots of intrigue. The story wasn’t one hundred percent perfect, as it may have carried on a little longer than necessary, but other than that, it was quite entertaining!!
As always, I feel compelled to give thanks to Open Road Media for reissuing so many wonderful classic mysteries in digital format. Finding these books can be a bit of a chore, and can be costly, if you are looking for print copies. Not only that, it is much easier on my eyes if I can read them on my Kindle.
I’m really looking forward to reading through the "Miss Silver" series and will be on the lookout for more stand -alone novels by this author.
4 stars
I love Golden Age Mysteries!
This is a stand- alone mystery- not a part of the Miss Silver series- by Wentworth. Amabel Grey’s rather spoiled daughter, Daphne, shovels on the guilt, demanding that Amabel raise the funds for a trip she’s desperate to take. Determined to get the money, Amabel agrees to spend six months at 'Dower House' to help dispel stubborn rumors that the house is haunted. Will she manage to stay for the duration?
I’m sure that over the years I have read a few books by Patricia Wentworth, but it would have been long, long time ago, and I don’t have any memory of them. I’ve been piecing together the ‘Miss Silver’ mysteries for a while, hoping to read through the series from start to finish. This book, however, is not a part of that series. Truth be told, I stumbled across it while browsing through the Kindle Unlimited books at Amazon.
This was such a fun mystery! Amabel is reunited with the real love of her life after many years, but her life could be in real danger- but from whom? And Why?
There are plenty of atmospheric chills and thrills, as well as a sweet love story, and lots of intrigue. The story wasn’t one hundred percent perfect, as it may have carried on a little longer than necessary, but other than that, it was quite entertaining!!
As always, I feel compelled to give thanks to Open Road Media for reissuing so many wonderful classic mysteries in digital format. Finding these books can be a bit of a chore, and can be costly, if you are looking for print copies. Not only that, it is much easier on my eyes if I can read them on my Kindle.
I’m really looking forward to reading through the "Miss Silver" series and will be on the lookout for more stand -alone novels by this author.
4 stars
vesper1931's review
4.0
Amabel Grey desperately needs money so that her awful and spoilt daughter, Daphne, can travel to Egypt to catch her wealthy gentleman. So she agrees to spend six months in the haunted Dower House belonging to George Forsham. It doesn't take long for the hauntings to start.
An enjoyable and well-written historical mystery
Originally written in 1925
An enjoyable and well-written historical mystery
Originally written in 1925
justjenn's review against another edition
4.0
Enjoyable. Classic Patricia Wentworth. But it relied on people not recognizing a twin, which is always difficult to believe. And then, not even being able to figure out that the person they were seeing two of was a twin, despite knowing full well that a twin had gone missing. Ridiculous, but still a fun read.